


Anti-Social Behavior

by Wispie



Series: Strangers [2]
Category: Misfits (TV 2009)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gore, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mentions of Sex, Minor Character Death, Slow Burn, follows the plot of the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:20:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27160381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wispie/pseuds/Wispie
Summary: A cryptic message appears on a wall outside the community center. Powers are discovered, both good and bad.
Relationships: Nathan/Reader
Series: Strangers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982500
Kudos: 9





	Anti-Social Behavior

**Author's Note:**

> Season 1, Episode 1 
> 
> Songs:  
> Beat on the Brat - Ramones  
> Shoplifters of the World Unite - The Smiths  
> (And also, for shits and giggles…)  
> Somebody Got Murdered - The Clash 
> 
> “So we will share this road we walk  
> And mind our mouths and beware our talk”
> 
> (Reposted from my Tumblr, gloriainalbis.  
> Link: https://gloriainalbis.tumblr.com/post/629159109237850112/strangers)

The walk to the community center for your second day is brisk but significantly more enjoyable than being forced to listen to your father’s chastising. As you approach the group gathered by a new swath of graffiti on the side of the building, a window opens to your left and out climbs Nathan, who jumps to the ground and winces as the roll-up metal covering slams back down after him. 

“Nathan?” you ask, stopping in your tracks. 

“Ah!” He whips around to greet you with a guilty smile, clearly surprised. “Y/n! Good morning, I hope?” He starts walking with you to join the rest of the group. 

“Yeah, but what are you doin’ here?” 

“I have my reasons,” he explains vaguely, stretching his arms up and groaning as if he’s just gotten out of bed. He then pulls out a cigarette and sticks it between his teeth, completely failing to notice the giant red letters spelling out ‘I’M GOING TO KILL YOU’ as you walk past them. 

“This is a joke,” Curtis exclaims as you approach. “Did one of you do this?” He turns to look at you especially, and you suspect he overheard you yesterday telling Nathan and Kelly how you got your ASBO. 

“Hey, I’m all for street art and everything, but death threats aren’t really my scene.” 

“Death threat?” Nathan spins around until he sees the words. “Oh, well would you look at that!” He turns back to the group, glancing at each of you as if looking for an explanation. 

“Don’t look at me, ‘cuz I didn’t do it,” Kelly snaps at him. 

“I’ll tell you who did it, it’s that Banksy prick,” he offers. Alisha rolls her eyes, as do a few of the others. “There’s a hidden meaning. It’s like that monkey policeman with the banana and the Tesco’s bag.” 

“Maybe someone wants to kill us,” Simon speaks softly, looking uncomfortable at Nathan, who’s put an arm around him for some unknown reason. 

“Why would anyone want to kill us?” Kelly points out. You assume the threat was directed at the community center, not at you six specifically, but don’t really care to speak up. You’d probably be spending the day cleaning it off, so what does it matter who it’s meant for? 

“Come on, you lot, let’s get changed,” Tony directs, walking up suddenly. 

“Have you seen this?” Curtis points to the graffiti. Again. “Someone’s takin’ the piss.” 

“Yeah, it’s terrible, isn’t it? All this anti-social behavior.” Tony turns to look at you all suggestively. 

“Oh, is he having a dig at us?” Nathan smirks, mumbling through his cigarette. Alisha’s phone begins to ring and Tony jumps, instantly bursting with anger. 

“Right! That’s it, all of you, just give me your phones! No one’s making any more calls today. Now, come on!” He turns to Alisha first. 

“Uh-huh,” she scoffs. “Are you allowed to take out phones?” He grabs it out of her hands regardless as she giggles and snaps a picture of him. Kelly and Alisha lock eyes and snicker. Curtis gives his phone up willingly, Kelly tries to ignore him, but Tony grabs it out of her pocket, and Simon gives his up as well. He turns to Nathan. 

“I’m expecting a call from my mum,” he tries to reason, but Tony rips it from his hand. Nathan gapes at him, affronted. “Okay, take a message.” 

Then Tony turns to you. You make a point to look him in the eyes and raise your eyebrows to distract him as you press your phone into Nathan’s hand. You see him glance at you in confusion before catching on and pocketing it. 

“Haven’t got one,” you explain casually, holding up your empty hands. You can swear Tony  _ growls _ as he reaches out to feel your pockets. “Damn, is that even legal?” you half-whisper. To your right, Nathan bites his lip to keep from smiling and giving you away. It works. Tony huffs and lumbers back to the community center. Curtis flips up his hood and follows suit. 

“Wanker,” Kelly sneers as she strolls past Tony.

Nathan watches to make sure they leave. 

“That was  _ brilliant! _ ” He gushes as soon as Tony’s out of earshot, handing you your phone. 

“It was nothing,” you brush off, starting to follow behind the others. “You can use it to phone your mum if you’d like.” 

“Oh, no, that’s alright.” He looks away, staring at his feet as he walks. 

“Are you sure?” you ask. You hadn’t snuck the phone past Tony  _ only _ for him, but it was, you know, a good upside. And you aren’t sure what other opportunities he would have to use it, now that Tony thought he’d taken all the phones. 

“Yeah, she won’t call.” You can tell that he’s trying to sound like he doesn’t care. But, you’re learning this quickly, Nathan isn’t exactly the best liar. 

“I won’t ask.” You wonder what the situation is, but don’t want to pry. Nathan smiles. 

Back at the locker rooms, everyone begins changing into their jumpsuits. Alisha situates herself in front of the mirror and begins to fiddle. She pops up her collar, undoes the top few buttons of her jumpsuit, and combes at her hair, fluffing it up. Kelly, having already changed, is lighting what looks to be either a hand-rolled cigarette or a blunt. 

“Is he allowed to take our phones?” Nathan muses. “He’s probably using them to call one of those sex lines.” Alisha giggles. 

“Those sex lines will eat your credit,” Curtis comments. 

“Call them a lot, do you?” Alisha raises an eyebrow. Kelly passes her the cigarette and she watches herself take a few draws from it in the mirror. 

Nathan continues with his disturbing ruminations, “He’s out there feeling himself on our phones, naked, masturbating.” 

“Now why would he do that?” Curtis questions, quite sensibly.

“Because he can,” Nathan responds. 

“That’s quite the image,” you groan, trying desperately not to imagine it. 

“Oh, I’ll give you an image.” Nathan winks, pulling off his shirt. You roll your eyes and look away, leaning against the door of your locker. Glancing to the back of the room, you wonder where Simon’s run off to. You thought you’d seen him standing by the buckets a few moments ago. 

“Do you want some of this?” Alisha holds out the cigarette, tucked between her blue manicured fingers, to Curtis, who refuses. 

“Give it here, come on,” Nathan says as he walks past her and she hands it to him. As you grab a bucket and follow him out, you notice that he has crossed the ‘pay’ from ‘community payback’ on the back of his jumpsuit to make it say ‘community blowback’ instead. You smile and chuckle to yourself. 

Curtis appears to be the only one actually trying to remove those giant red letters from the wall, scrubbing determinedly while the rest of you just sort of brush at them and hope they disappear. Alisha isn’t even working. She’s unzipped and removed the entire upper half of her jumpsuit to reveal a bikini top and is sunning herself on a nearby table. 

“Yeah, you just relax, innit? Take it easy,” Curtis grumbles. 

“Someone’s just going to write something else on there tonight,” she retorts. “They make us do these bullshit jobs, wearing these bullshit orange jumpsuits. They can suck my dick.” You have to admit, she has a point. 

“Nice,” he looks her up and down and smirks coquettishly. 

“Feel free to check out my tits, yeah,” she encourages, blowing a kiss and looking down at him smokily from behind her lowered sunglasses. You look back at your designated section of furiously bright red paint. Wishing it would just go away, you lean down to get more soap on your brush, and when you stand back up, your section of the wall is spotless. You stumble backward, bewildered. 

“Guys?” you gape, trying to catch their attention, pointing to the bare wall. But when everyone turns to look, it’s gone back to normal, the bold lettering mocking you. 

“What?” Kelly asks, scrunching up her face in what looks like confusion and concern. You rush back to the wall, running your fingers across the paint, and they come back dusted with red. It’s real. 

“I-” everyone looks at you like you’re crazy, and they’re probably right. “It’s nothing.” 

A few moments later, Kelly stops scrubbing. “You know after the storm, did any of you feel like dead weird?” She sounds serious. 

“Yeah. I had a strange tingling sensation in my anus,” Nathan quips. 

You roll your eyes and turn to her, “I think I’ve been seein’ things,” you admit. 

“Yeah, I’ve been hearin’ shit,” she agrees before spinning around to address Simon, seemingly out of the blue. “What, did you feel weird?” 

“You don’t want to hear about my anus?” Nathan calls, clutching his hands to his butt. 

“Do you really need to ask the question?” you hear Curtis say from behind you. You shove Nathan and turn back around to pay attention to Simon and Kelly, ignoring his cry of indignation. 

“Something happened,” Simon begins quietly. 

“What’s that? Squeak up!” Nathan chides. 

“Something happened to me,” he repeats louder. 

“Are you a virgin? Hi-hoooooy!” Nathan jokes, and you contemplate punching him again. 

Kelly does it for you, turning to yell, “Shut up!” which effectively shuts him down, before returning to Simon. “What was it?” 

He gulps and you can see the nervousness churning behind his eyes. “It’s nothing.” 

Kelly scrunches her face up and scowls, running past you to shove Nathan. 

“What was that for?” he calls after her. 

She turns to you as she goes, “Didn’t you hear that? It was  _ disgustin’ _ .” You hadn’t, and you have no idea what she’s referring to. So you shrug at Nathan, who looks suitably chastened, and return to your scrubbing. 

Later, you’re all starting to congregate around the couches in the main entrance hall. Kelly still hasn’t returned, but the letters are mostly gone and you’re all angling for a break. Alisha is taking up an entire couch section to herself, sitting sideways with her feet up, and Simon is sequestered in the alcove of a doorway. You’re sitting on a larger couch across from them, watching Nathan beat up a vending machine to try and get a free soda. He holds one up, triumphant, as you slow clap and he takes a bow. Curtis walks up with a stack of empty buckets under his arm. 

“When I was in sixth form, you came to my school. You gave this big talk about athletics and all your medals and that.” Alisha says to Curtis with a tone that entreats him to elaborate on his story. 

Nathan rolls out behind him in a wheelchair, soda in hand, “So I’m guessin’ you’re not going to the Olympics.” 

“Funny,” Curtis snaps sarcastically at the obvious jab. 

“I heard he was dealing crack,” Alisha chimes with a quirk of her eyebrow. 

Curtis scowls. “What? I wasn’t dealing crack.”

“No, no, the papers said it was steroids,” Nathan adds, opening his soda with a hiss. 

“That stuff with shrivel your dick,” Alisha lies down on her seat. 

Curtis takes a few steps forward, looking at them insistently. “It wasn’t steroids. I’m not a cheat. That stuff in the papers was bullshit.”

“Yeah? So what was it, then?” Alisha presses. Nathan raises his eyebrows. 

Curtis takes a few hesitant seconds to reply. “I got caught with a little bit of coke. Alright? I messed up one time.” 

“No one gets community service for possession,” Alisha holds her arms up, asking him to explain. 

He scoffs. “If it was anyone else, they’d have got a caution. I get two hundred hours community service and a two year back from athletics. They said, ‘cuz of my profile, they needed to send a message.” You feel bad for Curtis for being treated differently because of his success. It doesn't seem fair, bringing someone so far down when they’d come so far and were so close to reaching their goals. 

“You let yourself down,” Nathan taunts, grinning deviously. Your eyes widen, wishing he had kept his mouth shut. “You let the kids down. You let your parents down-”

Curtis fumes and stews in silence before suddenly bursting, launching forward at Nathan “Shut the fuck up! All I ever did was train! You know nothing! I shouldn’t even fuckin’ be here!” If only Nathan could just shut up for one second. 

“You can’t hit someone in a wheelch-” Nathan’s eyes flash wide open as a piece of duct tape appears over his mouth. Alisha and Simon sit up straighter, pulled to attention. You sit there horrified, realizing that for the first time that you definitely aren’t the only one seeing this. Nathan points to Curtis in accusation. 

“It wasn’t me, mate.” He holds his arms up, taking a few fearful steps back. You feel sick to your stomach, too frozen in place to say anything. Nathan lets out a muffled scream and tries to pull off the duct tape, scrambling at it with his fingers. It crumbles into his hands like dust before disappearing completely. You let out a huge sigh of relief, but your heart continues to thump away in your chest. 

“Who was that?” Nathan yells, jumping out of the wheelchair, which rolls backward until it hits the wall. 

You gulp. “I- I think I did it?” 

“Well, what the fuck for?! And how?” He rears on you, anger and confusion written plainly on his face. 

“I have no idea,” you admit honestly. 

Alisha scoffs and giggles, somehow finding the situation funny. “Do you wanna know what I got done for?” 

“Not really,” Nathan remarks, turning his head to glare at you before plopping himself back down in the wheelchair. That sends a pang of guilt through your chest. You don’t really know what you did, or how you did it. 

Alisha motions for you to come closer and you all gather to sit in audience before her, “Me and my mate Chloe, we’re having cocktails in this bar, yeah? An’ she’s hassling me, ‘cuz she wants to go to this party. Chloe is on one because she thinks Jack is doing Lucy. A total slut fuck. So we get in my car. I drive us to the party.”

“Nathan?” you whisper, poking his arm to get his attention. 

“We go into one of the rooms, yeah? Jack’s not doing Lucy, he’s doing Ellie. She is a proper slut.” 

“What?” He still looks pissed. 

“I’m sorry. Something really weird’s going on.” You hope he believes you, he seems pretty fun, if a bit vulgar, and you aren’t even sure of how you’d screwed it up. 

“Chloe  _ freaks _ . I’m driving us back into town. Chloe’s all like ‘Oh, I feel sick.’ I’m like ‘Don’t puke in my car. Do not  _ puke _ in my car.’”

“Alright.” He gives you a small smile.

“Really?” You didn’t think it would be that easy, but maybe he remembered what Kelly said earlier. 

“That’s when the police pull us over. I’m already banned from driving, so I am like ‘ _ Fuuuck _ .’”

“Yeah, no hard feelings.” He reaches down to ruffle the top of your hair, weirdly enough, but it fits pretty well with what you know of Nathan so far. 

“This cop, yeah? He hands me the breathalyzer and I’m like ‘Do I suck, or blow?’” Alisha runs her tongue along the bottom edge of her water bottle before licking the cap and putting her lips around it, slowly working up and down. “It’s insane, I’m totally workin’ it, yeah?” She licks up the bottle’s side before sticking the entire top in her mouth again and bobbing her head back and forth, in and out, pursing her lips as she picks up speed before slowly and carefully pulling it back out. “Now, I don’t know if this cop is gay or what, but he tells me I’m four times over the limit. It’s  _ bullshit _ . I didn’t even want to go to the party.” You’re a little grossed out, but all the boys are gaping at this point. Just then, the front doors fly open with a bang and Kelly tumbles into the room, scrambling to her feet to lock it, screaming, “He’s gonna kill us!” You scramble backward before jumping up from your seat on the floor. 

Nathan spins around in his chair, clapping. “Nice entrance. Very dramatic.” But Kelly looks distraught and shaken, and you don’t think she’s exaggerating anything. 

“The probation worker’s gone mental. He just attacked me! Something really weird is happening. I’m hearin’ these voices. It’s like I can hear what people are thinking!” she explains hastily. 

“Have you been sniffing glue?” Alisha scolds, tilting her head to the side in mock sympathy. 

Kelly raises her voice, practically yelling in desperation, “The storm, the lightning! It’s done something to us!” 

“Okay,” Nathan speaks up. “If you can hear our thoughts, what am I thinking now?”

“You think it’s bullshit?!” Kelly exclaims.

“‘Course I think it’s bullshit!” he snaps back. “You don’t need to be a mind reader to know that.”

“Why are you in a wheelchair?” she asks tentatively, just now noticing it. 

“It was the storm!” You roll your eyes as he messes with her. “The strange tingling sensation in my anus has spread to my body and now I can’t feel my legs.”

She realizes he’s joking and kicks him “I’m serious!” 

“Ow! Jesus!” 

You decide to take a gamble at something.  _ Kelly _ , you think,  _ the storm did something to me too. _

“What, you, too?” She asks, turning to face you.

“Yeah,” you nod. “It happened just a few minutes ago. I wanted Nathan to shut up and then duct tape just appeared over his mouth. And it happened with the graffiti earlier, I wanted it to disappear, and then it did, for a second.” Her eyes light up and she turns to the rest of the group.

“See? I ain’t lyin’!” 

“Well then, what do you mean the probation worker attacked you?” Curtis takes a few steps towards her. 

Alisha doesn’t believe either of you, “This does sound like complete shit.” 

“He’s out there and he chased me!” She insists, frantically pointing to the door. 

“Something’s happened to me, too,” Simon speaks up. 

“Did you pop your cherry?” Nathan teases, still not taking any of this seriously. “Oh, we’re all very happy for you!” 

Simon ignores him and addresses everyone else. “Earlier on, when we were in the locker room… I was invisible. I turned invisible.”

“So she’s psychic, you can make hallucinations or whatever, and you can turn invisible?” Curtis speaks, trying to make sense of everything. He chuckles. “Yeah, that seems likely.” 

“Did anyone witness this miraculous disappearance?” Nathan questions, leaning forward in his chair. 

“Yes!” you exclaim, turning to Simon. “You were standing by the buckets and then you weren’t! I wondered where you’d run off to.” 

Simon nods, spurred on by your admission, “You were all there.” 

Alisha scoffs, still not convinced, “I think we might have noticed you vanishing into thin air.” 

“I was standing right there and you couldn’t see me,” he insists, a sad, almost betrayed look crossing his face. 

“Alright.” Nathan puts on a determined look and wheels over to Simon. “Go on, then. Do it. Turn invisible.”

Simon tenses and grunts, trying to force it. You glare at Nathan for putting him on the spot like this, and you feel a pang of guilt for generally encouraging his antics. 

“Oh, my god!” Nathan exclaims. “He’s disappeared!” You roll your eyes and groan, feeling worse by the second.

Simon, however, seems to believe him, holding out a hand in front of Nathan’s eyes. “Can’t you see me?” 

“No,” Nathan gasps before throwing his empty soda can at Simon’s head and proclaiming, “you’re invisible!” 

“You prick! What’d you do that for?” you ask, miffed, but he ignores you. 

“You all are hilarious, really. Keep taking that medication.” He starts wheeling towards the door, but Kelly jumps in front of him and grabs his armrests. 

“Don’t go out there, he will kill you!” she yells. 

“Of course he will, ‘cuz he’s such a badass,” Nathan retorts sarcastically.

“Don’t!” She screams, with angry and fearful tears in her eyes. 

Curtis just walks past her to the door, scoffing in disbelief, “Come on, this is the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.” 

“No!!” Kelly shrieks, throwing Curtis out of the way as the door swings open. 

You hear a bellowing roar as a metal tube flies through the open door and into Kelly’s head, spraying streams of blood up and down the wall beside her. 

“Kelly!” you cry in shock. Her expression slackens and her eyes go blank as she slumps against the wall and tumbles to the floor, dead. Tony bursts into the room with a sharp, red-stained tube in his hands. Another scream tears at your throat as you feel a hand on your arm, Nathan’s, pulling you away and setting you running down the hall.

.

.

.

.

.

“Can’t you see me?” Simon gasps, holding out a hand in front of Nathan’s eyes and appearing to believe him. 

“No,” Nathan gaspes before throwing his empty soda can at Simon’s head and proclaiming, “you’re invisible!” 

“You prick! What’d you do that for?” you ask, miffed, but he ignores you. 

“You all are hilarious, really. Keep taking that medication.” He starts wheeling towards the door, but Kelly jumps in front of him and grabs onto his armrests. 

“Don’t go out there, he will kill you!” she yells. 

“Of course he will, ‘cuz he’s such a badass,” Nathan retorts sarcastically.

“Don’t!” She screams, with angry and fearful tears in her eyes. 

Curtis jolts forward, fear gripping his expression “She’s telling the truth.” 

Nathan looks absolutely  _ delighted _ . “And you know this how? I suppose you’re psychic now, too?”

Curtis’ entire demeanor has completely shifted. He’s breathing heavily now out of shock or fear, or because of something you can’t quite understand. He speaks urgently and uneasily, “All this. It’s already happened once. I opened the door, the probation worker, he killed you.” He points to Kelly. “You were right there. You were  _ dead _ . Everything froze. You were all just standing there. Time went backwards.”

“What are you saying?” Alisha pipes up. “What, you turned back time?” 

Nathan rises from his seat, eyeing Curtis curiously, “This just gets better by the second.” He strides to the door. 

“Everything happened again, exactly the same. I’m telling you, don’t open that door!” Curtis insists, following after him. You run. 

“Nathan, no!” you scream, reaching the door just as he puts a hand on it. A giant lock and chain appears around the handles. He gives you an odd glance before yanking the door open regardless, and the chains turn into dust and disappear. You couldn’t see what he was looking at, but an expression of terror sweeps across Nathan’s face and he closes and locks the door in a flurry of jittery movements. 

“He’s right, the probation worker’s gone mental!” he gasps. Tony slams into the other side of the door and your heart leaps out of your chest. You only catch a glimpse of his hulking, dark frame silhouetted against the frosted glass before Nathan shrieks and pulls you away to join the rest of the group, who are all standing together. 

“Maybe he’s on crystal meth,” Alisha tries to reason, but the waver in her voice gives away her fear. “I mean, that stuff makes you crazy. My friend Chloe did it, she nearly shagged her brother. And he’s really ugly”

“Enough about Chloe!” you exclaim. “It sounds like she’s made some really poor life choices and I’d rather not follow in her footsteps!” 

Simon gasps, realizing something, “The graffiti. ‘I’m going to kill you,” he wrote it.” 

“What did I say? I said there was a hidden meaning! Or not.” Nathan retorts. Realizing his hand is still clasped around your arm, he drops it awkwardly and looks away. 

“Did anything happen to you?” Kelly asks, turning to face Alisha. 

“No, we should call the police!” she suggests adamantly. 

Simon shakes his head. “He took our phones, he’s got all our phones.” 

Nathan turns to look at you and you smile, pulling your phone out of your pocket. “Well, not  _ all  _ of them.” You hold it up for the rest of the group to see, turning it on to find- “ _ Fuck! _ I don’t have reception in this shithole.” 

“Let’s get out of here, then,” Curtis offers. 

“Out the back way, come on!” Nathan calls, moving down the hall and motioning for everyone to follow him. But as he turns the corner, he slips, crying out and falling to the floor with a loud squelch and a squeak. Nathan is sprawled on the floor in a pool of thick, stagnant blood. Your stomach churns as you try to keep yourself from retching. 

“Is that blood?!” Kelly screams. 

Realization washes over Nathan and he scrambles to his feet, “Oh,  _ fuck! _ Jesus Christ!” He gapes at the dark red smears coating his hands and gags, wiping them desperately on his jumpsuit. “Get it off me, Jesus!” It’s then that you notice the locker. Blood oozes from each vent and out onto the tile below, trickling down the front of the door like a morbid waterfall. Curtis approaches carefully before gingerly opening the door. Gary’s smashed in head lurches forward and you all jump, screaming as it lolles back and forth. His jumpsuit is stained red in various gruesome places and his body is sitting at odd, gut-wrenching angles in the tiny locker. Blood has dripped down from his ears, nose, and mouth, and predominantly from a gaping, disgusting wound on the left side of his neck.

“It’s Gary,” Simon murmurs. 

“I did wonder what had happened to him,” Nathan mumbles, inching closer and peering at the contorted, lifeless form before you. It is undoubtedly the worst thing you have ever seen, but you can’t take your eyes off of it, the horror is all-encompassing. 

“He’s gonna kill us,” Alisha whispers, on the verge of tears. 

“Turn back time,” Nathan says to Curtis. “Stop this happening.” 

“I don’t know how it works!” He exclaims frantically. 

“Oh, that’s great, that’s really useful!” Nathan chides. 

Curtis ignores him, instead turning to comfort Alisha “Come on, don’t look at him.” 

You wish the body would disappear, and some dark sheets appear to cover everything. You know it’s temporary, but you just want to be able to look away. Curtis puts his hand on Alisha’s arm and gasps. 

“ _ I’ve got to have sex with you right now! You’re so beautiful. _ ” He grabs her shoulder and pulls her closer to him. 

“What’s up with him?” Nathan calls in confusion. Alisha is screaming and trying to pull her arm out of Curtis’s grip. 

“ _ Let’s go, let’s do it now! _ ” He reaches his hand into his pants and you turn away, disgusted. Your mind screams at you to do something, to pull him off of her, but you have no idea what’s happening and you freeze. 

“Get off me, you freak!” Alisha finally yanks her arm out of his grasp and stumbles back. 

“What?” Curtis asks, completely unaware of what just occurred, of what he said and tried to do. Alisha reels back an arm, preparing to slap him. He grabs it out of the air and his skin touches hers again, suddenly groaning in a way that makes your skin crawl. 

“ _ You’re so hot! I’m gonna bone you, I’m gonna shag you senseless! _ ” 

“Let go!” she yells, stumbling backward out of his grip. The look on her face is confused and horrified, and a thousand other emotions you had hoped never to see on anyone you knew. 

“What did I do?” Curtis asks. 

Kelly speaks up, “Uh, you said you were gonna shag her?” 

“And you were gettin’ your chap out,” Nathan points. 

“Shut up!” Curtis gasps, messing with the waistline of his pants. 

“It’s when you were touching her,” Simon realizes. Alisha looks down at her shaky hands before reaching to touch the side of Simon’s neck. He jerks up, gasping. 

“ _ I’m so hard for you. I want to rip your clothes off and piss on your tits, _ ” Simon growls. Alisha rips her hand from him and jumps back. 

“What is happening to me?!” She cries.

Nathan turns to Simon, looking amused and mildly disgusted, “You sick bastard!” 

Suddenly, the door behind you caves in, sending shards of glass flying in every direction. Tony falls through, bringing parts of the broken door frame with him as he tumbles to the floor. You hear Nathan yell in surprise as he backs away, getting as far from Tony as possible. You go the other direction, stupidly pinning yourself against one of the remaining glass doors. Tony snarls and reared on you, raising himself onto his knees before climbing to his feet. Your shriek is lost in everyone else’s screams, but then Kelly jumps in front of you from seemingly nowhere, brandishing a paint can in one hand. She swings it at Tony and it slams into his head with a sickening thunk. He collapses back to the floor, motionless. 

“What did you do?” Nathan gasped after a few shockingly silent seconds, genuinely horrified. The side of the paint can was caved in and smeared in red. There was a hole in Tony’s head that blood had begun to spill from. You whimpered and stumbled away from him, keeping as close to the wall as possible before leaving it to shuffle past the locker that held Gary. 

“Is he dead?” Alisha asked in a high pitched whisper. 

Nathan speaks up, “Well, I’m no doctor, but… You see the way the back of his head’s caved in like that?” Suddenly, Tony roars and grasps at Kelly’s leg, which is only a few feet from him. You jump back and feel an arm wrap around you and turn your head away from the quickly escalating scene of horror. Kelly reacts immediately, tearing her leg from his grip and bringing it down on his head, over and over again in a chorus of appalling splinters and squelches. 

“That should do it,” Nathan speaks as he lets his arms fall from your shoulders, his voice creaky with distress. 

“You killed our probation worker,” Alisha gasps, turning to Kelly. Kelly shakes her head slightly in shock. 

“This is very, very bad.” Nathan runs his hands through his hair. 

Alisha gags, looking away from Tony’s corpse. “Oh, I feel sick.”

“He would have killed us!” Kelly reasons, insecurity and fear worming its way into the warble of her voice. 

“We should call the police. It was self-defense,” Curtis suggests, echoing Alisha’s words from only a few minutes ago. But while that was your original plan, it was now entirely out of the question.    
“Yeah,” Alisha agrees, “yeah, he’s right. We show ‘em the dead boy in the locker. They’ll do some CSI shit and figure it all out.” 

“They won’t believe us!” Kelly cries, and you suspect she’s right.

“We just tell them the truth. We stick to our story,” Curtis persists. 

“What’s our story?” she asks, exasperated. “That he can turn invisible and she can conjure illusions and you can turn back time?! It doesn’t matter what we tell them, they’ll say we’re lying. They’ll say that we killed ‘em both! No one’s gonna believe you, not anymore.” She’s right. You know she’s right, deep in your being, in your bones, and you hate it. You hate how true it is, how messed up and unfair it is. 

“If there’s no body, there’s no crime,” Simon mutters anxiously. Everyone turns to look at him. “We should bury them under the flyover.” 

“Yeah? How do we do that? Someone’s gonna see us,” Alisha points out. You’re grateful for that, honestly. You’re all so distraught right now, you might have actually just walked outside with two dead bodies without thinking there would be consequences. 

Nathan shakes his head and you can practically  _ see  _ him thinking. “No, no, no. We give them a quick little,” he whistles to represent cleaning or something. “We put them in those wheelchairs, we wheel them up there, and if anyone sees us, we’re just a bunch of young offenders taking a couple of specials for a walk in the sunshine!” He tries to smile, but he looks far too tense to do so. 

After cleaning up and redressing the bodies, wheeling them under the flyover, and digging the hole, Nathan and Kelly tip over the wheelchairs, now soaked in blood, and dump the bodies into the ground. Nathan looks up at you somberly, a queasy expression on his face. Everyone is silent for a few seconds, partially relieved, but also knowing that the real danger begins now, with keeping this covered up. 

Nathan shakes his head and puts on his usual playful airs, “I’m pretty sure this breaches the terms of my ASBO.” It isn’t even that funny, but you’re so weary, so exhausted from the past two days of crazy events and literal murder, that you start laughing. Nathan does too, first small giggles, then snickers, and then all-out laughter. The mood hasn’t lightened much by the time you quiet down, and you only feel marginally better, but it’s the best you’ve felt in the past few hours, so that’s a start. 

“We don’t tell anyone about this, yeah?” Kelly instructs. Everyone nods. “About the storm or what it did to us or anything.”

“We’re about to bury our probation worker, we don’t need to be drawing any attention to ourselves,” Nathan agrees. 

“I don’t want anyone to know.” Alisha grabs a shovel and stands by the open grave. “I cannot be a freak.” 

“It’s too late for me on that front,” you joke, “but being convicted for murder wouldn’t help anything.” 

“What about you?” Kelly points to Curtis, who remains bitterly silent. 

Nathan shakes his head, “There’s no goin’ back now, man. You’re just as screwed as the rest of us. You are black  _ and _ famous, you’re probably more screwed.”

“I shouldn’t even be here,” Curtis spits. 

“You don’t really have a choice,” you point out. Curtis meets your gaze for a second before bending down and digging his shovel into the newly upturned soil. You follow suit. 

Kelly turns to Alisha, “Just then, when he was touchin’ ya… How were you doin’ that?” 

“I don’t know!” Alisha responds, trying to brush her off. 

“Didn’t you say you wanted to piss on her tits?” Nathan teases, unfortunately reminding everyone of the particulars of that scene. “Probably best to keep that kind of thing between you and your internet service provider.” Simon is clearly trying not to look mortified, and he just continued shoveling. 

“Are you alright?” Curtis stops for a moment to address Alisha, remembering the involuntary part he played in the discovery of her power. She doesn’t say anything. Kelly stands up suddenly to repeatedly glance between you and Nathan. 

“What?” you ask. Nathan glares insistently at her, realizing what’s happening even as you don’t. 

“It’s nothin’,” Kelly shrugged and returned to shoveling. 

After a few more minutes, Nathan stands up and leans on his shovel, “Hold on, all of you have some kind of ‘special power.’ “Everyone can do something except me. He can do something,” he points to Simon, “ _ he  _ can do something and I can’t. That’s ridiculous, look at him! How does that make any sense.” Simon stops for a moment to wipe some sweat from his brow. 

“Well he sure is working harder than you,” you point out. 

“I work harder in other areas,” Nathan explains suggestively. 

“Maybe you can do something, you just haven’t found out what it is yet,” Simon reasons. 

“Yeah, right.” Nathan smiles, emboldened by the possibilities. “What if… What if I can’t feel pain?” Kelly punches him. “ _ Ow! _ ”

“Did you feel that?” She grins. You laugh, completely understanding the impulse. 

“Stop hitting me!” Nathan protests. “Both of you!” 

The sky has darkened significantly by the time you finish the burial, and it isn't helped by the fact that you have to stop every few minutes when it suddenly looks like everything is done because you really want to just be finished. It’s actually a pretty good exercise in controlling your power. It’s even later by the time you finish cleaning off the wheelchairs, locker, and the surrounding area. Nathan catches up with you as you leave, asking if you want to walk home with him again. His voice sounds chipper and you half expect him to be joking, but when you look up, his eyes plead with you to say yes. So you do. And you don’t walk in silence. There is much to say about the past two days and it feels good to say it, to divulge your fear and your worries, and to hear them reciprocated. He turns down the same street he did the previous day and you walk the rest of the way alone, trying not to let your overwhelming fear of the future overtake you. You finally return home and collapse onto your bed for the second day in a row, once again hoping that the next day would be better, and doubting that it could be much worse. 


End file.
